Sequoia Project takes on TEFCA under FHIR
The Sequoia Project, the recognized coordinating entity of the Trusted Exchange Framework and the Common Agreement, is seeking feedback on new versions of the Common Agreement, the Qualified Health Information Networks Technical Framework, Participant/Sub-Participant Terms of Participation, and Standard Operating Procedures.
Stakeholder responses to a cache of 15 concept documents must be no later than February 5.
WHY IT MATTERS
TEFCA 2.0 is intended to support Health Level Seven Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources-based transactions and is expected to be adopted by QHINs this quarter, according to the TEFCA FHIR roadmap.
In the near term, TEFCA will support “facilitated FHIR” under TEFCA 2.0, according to Chris Muir and Alan Swenson of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.
The QHINs “will provide the network infrastructure to support FHIR API-based exchange between TEFCA participants and sub-participants of different QHINs,” they said at ONCs earlier this month Health IT Buzz blog.
“Specifically, if a TEFCA participant or sub-participant wants to obtain a patient’s data using FHIR, they will go to their QHINs to determine who has the patient information,” they said.
“Patient discovery will occur through the QHIN-to-QHIN interaction, including discovery of the FHIR endpoints for those who have the patient data. The initiating participant or sub-participant will then directly (that is, without going through the QHIN) and securely each of those endpoints.”
As part of the update, the Sequoia Project is addressing the long-awaited electronic case reporting procedures under TEFCA with the drafts.
It has been required since 2022 by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Promoting Interoperability Program for eligible and critical access hospitals, and the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System Promoting Interoperability Performance Category for eligible physicians, because the COVID -19 emergency showed limitations of a national data sharing infrastructure.
“When implemented for public health, the use of TEFCA may include electronic case reporting, immunization registry data sharing, vital records data sharing and case investigations,” the RCE explains in its Public Health Exchange Purpose: Educational Guidance Draft for Stakeholder Feedback.
“The Common Agreement allows for six types of sharing purposes, one of which is public health. This allows entities participating in TEFCA to appropriately share and request information to and from PHAs through a secure sharing network.”
While the guidance design explains what it means for a public health authority to participate in TEFCA. The proposed rules for electronic case reporting are set out in the Implementation of Exchange Purposes SOP: Public Health SubXP-1.
The RCE will host a webinar series on January 23, 30 and February 2 from 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM ET to provide an overview of the objectives and key changes and delve deeper into the draft Common Agreement Version 2, terms of participation, revised SOPs and XP deployment rules.
THE BIG TREND
Led by ONC, the public-private effort to establish nationwide health data sharing under TEFCA began in December.
While some QHINs are still in the onboarding process, eHealth Exchange, Epic Nexus, Health Gorilla, KONZA and MedAllies have been exchanging data since last month.
The cornerstone of TEFCA is robust provider participation, something many experts believe the FHIR exchange could ignite.
“Providers across the country recognize all the untapped potential and should join TEFCA for the benefit of patients everywhere,” Craig Richardville, chief digital and information officer of Intermountain Health, said in an Epic announcement about the go-live of TEFCA.
ON THE RECORD
“When TEFCA went live in December, the QHINs signed the Common Agreement v1.1 at an event at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,” Mariann Yeager, CEO of the Sequoia Project and RCE leader, said in Friday’s announcement.
“At that time, in collaboration with the QHINs, we were already hard at work on Common Agreement v2 to ensure rapid implementation of the FHIR Roadmap for TEFCA Exchange v2.”
Andrea Fox is editor-in-chief of Healthcare IT News.
Email: afox@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.